In the past few decades, the petroleum industry has invested heavily in the development of marine seismic survey techniques that yield knowledge of subterranean formations beneath a body of water in order to find and extract valuable mineral resources, such as oil. High-resolution seismic images of a subterranean formation are helpful for quantitative seismic interpretation and improved reservoir monitoring. For a typical marine seismic survey, a source vessel tows one or more seismic sources below the surface of the water and over a subterranean formation to be surveyed for mineral deposits. Seismic receivers may be located on or near the water bottom, on one or more streamers towed by the source vessel near the water surface, or on one or more streamers towed by another vessel. The source vessel typically contains marine seismic survey equipment, such as navigation control, seismic source control, seismic receiver control, and recording equipment.
The seismic source control may cause the one or more seismic sources, which can be air guns, marine vibrators, etc., to produce acoustic signals at selected times (often referred to as “firing a shot” or “shooting”). Each acoustic signal is essentially a sound wavefield that travels through the water. The seismic receivers thereby measure a wavefield that was ultimately initiated by the actuation of the seismic source. In this sense, the acoustic signals (or “shots”) are fired at the seismic receivers and the seismic receivers measure a wavefield based on the actuation of the seismic sources.